This invention relates to a method and apparatus, for the application of labels to food packages which are to be sold in grocery stores and supermarkets. The Universal Product Code (UPC) was recently adopted by the retail food industry to allow an automated checkout arrangement in grocery stores and supermarkets. The code is a bar code pattern which, for prepackaging goods, specifies in machine readable notation the manufacturer and the item. With prepackaged products this code is typically printed on a side of the product package. At the checkout stand, the checker passes the bar code symbols over a scanning arrangement, of a type known in the art. The scanning arrangement reads the coded information and transmits it to a computer which determines the cost of the item being sold and supplies this information to checkout register for totalization. Additionally, the computer keeps track of the items sold for inventory purposes. Such a system eliminates the need for price marking each item and speeds the checkout procedure.
Since, however, between 10 and 30% of items sold in grocery stores are random weight products (e.g., meat, produce, and cheese), for an automated checkout system to be employed effectively, provision for the application of UPC labels to such products must be made. In presently used systems, such items have typically been weighed in the supermarket and a human readable label printed specifying the total weight, the cost per unit weight, and the total cost of the product. The label is applied to the top of the product package, either manually or automatically. An example of a semi-automatic system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,353, issued Jan. 19, 1971, which shows a weighing scale, an associated price calculating computer, and label printer. The type of item being weighed is indicated to the printer by a commodity key which is inserted into the printer and bears the name of the product. A similar system of automatic labeling of a large number of packages is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,966. There the scale computer and printer are associated with a conveyer mechanism which moves the article to a position where a human readable label is automatically applied to the upper surface of the package.
A need has developed, therefore, for an apparatus which is compatible with pre-existing labeling apparatus and which is capable of printing and applying a label with UPC or other code to random weight products in the grocery store or in other weighing and labeling situations.
The UPC random weight symbol format specified by the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council is specified in the publications, Approaches to UPC Implementation, published by Supermarket Institute Inc., copyright 1974, and UPC Symbol Specification published by Distribution Codes Inc., Alexandria, Va. as administrator for the Uniform Product Code Council; this code requires a designator that the package is a random weight item. In the random weight stituations, four of the last five digits of the UPC code are used for the price of the item and six other digits may be used to specify the type of commodity in the package. Also in the random weight situation, the final digit position on the label is a check character. This check character is related mathematically to the information bearing characters and thus provides verification of scanner readout. It is desirable that the UPC label be applied to random weight packages in a location that facilitates checkout procedures, i.e., a location which is both accessable and predictable.